NodeBeat an Excruciatingly Brilliant Music Sequencer App!

NodeBeat is an extremely cool music app that is a clever twist on the traditionally linear sound generation titles available in the Android Market. Instead of completing a kind of streaming grid of sound effects, the music is generated by a pulse emanating from various Nodes. Add Nodes to create differing sounds, beats, bass, rhythms and so on. Looks incredible, sounds incredible so definitely worth a look…

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Simple to create sounds!

Superb visuals!

Fantastic ambient sound!

Ability to record your tracks!

Cons

While easy to create, it’s subsequently might feel a bit tricky to control your music.

Features:

NodeBeats is probably quite unlike any other music creator app you’ve seen. Take something like RD3 Groovebox which essentially has 16 repeatable steps into which you add sounds, beats, bass, etc. You build the track up, doing whatever you like but within these set parameters. NodeBeats takes an entirely different, and wholly more organic, approach to music creation.

You basically have an empty screen into which you initially drag ‘Nodes’. Now, you have 4 main Nodes (one of which, for example is beats) and to these you attach one or more smaller nodes which alter the sound. You then do whatever you like as you create the music of your choosing. You’ll need a fair bit of practice to learn what sounds to make, and controlling them isn’t as straight-froward as the more traditional means of music creation already mentioned. However it has a very natural feel about it and is loads of fun to play with. The way you play encourages you to explore, experiment and discover a new way of creating music. It’s completely different to any other similar app I’ve tried and, although it feels a little weird to begin with, it’s hugely satisfying.

Things get more exciting when you engage with the physics of the game. Nodes can free-fall through the screen, creating different sounds as they brush through slower or stationary Nodes. These too create entirely different and new sounds to utilize. With this kind of app, you don’t have set levels- the power doesn’t go up to 11 because there is no 11. Perhaps the downside to this is that you sometimes feel a little out of control- on one hand you might find this rather liberating, on the other you could find it a frustration, this really depends on the user.

Furthermore with this app, you cannot fail to notice the stunning visual imagery that it creates. Your screen quickly resembles pulsating pools of fireworks and bright lights that look extraordinary, perhaps especially on a bright Android tablet. There’s more to love too, like the way you can easily record and save your sounds to your SD card and the affects you can add such as Echo, Decay, Attack and Release. Check out the video below as it gives a small hint at the apps capabilities.

Usefulness:

NodeBeat is an app you play with, rather than the kind of thing that has a very specific use- besides music creation. Being able to record, further to the variety of effects you can add to the sounds, makes the app very capable as a stand-alone music creation tool. Perhaps only a users dedication to the app would determine whether something professional could be created from it.

Ease of Use:

NodeBeat is incredibly simple to pick up and use- a child could do it, and there’s a genuine immediacy about it that’s refreshing and new. That said, it’s tough to master, so while it is an app, it can become addictive in a game-like way as you learn more about the app and what it can do.

Frequently Used:

Like an addictive game, NodeBeat frequently draws you back into playing with it, and each time you’ll learn something new about the way the app works. As mentioned before it has a very organic and natural feel to it, which is both immersive and compulsive to the user.

Interface:

The interface is immaculate, and aims to keep things experimental by not labelling Nodes in any way. While I personally found this lots of fun, it might put those off who like things very orchestrated and functional.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(4.6 out of 5)

Should you Download NodeBeat? Utterly beautiful, fun to play, easy to learn and packed with rippling potential NodeBeat is an excruciatingly brilliant app that you should definitely try out, especially if you like music apps. It’s a very different way of creating music than what you might currently be used to. Despite it’s uniqueness it’s still great to play, utterly absorbing to experiment with and fun to learn, well worth the dollar.